SETTLEMENT FADES IN L.I.R.R. DISPUTE

By JAMES BARRON

Published: January 22, 1987

Negotiators for the Long Island Rail Road reported progress last night with 3 of 11 striking unions -reaching a tentative agreement with one. But a quick end still seemed unlikely for the walkout that has inconvenienced hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers all week.

A key union representing L.I.R.R. engineers did not accept the railroad's offer of an immediate award of $5,000 in retroactive pay to strikers who accept binding arbitration.

Another union, representing the line's signalmen, rejected it outright.

The president of the railroad, Bruce C. McIver, conceded that the offer had failed to break the impasse but said it had stimulated other avenues for bargaining.

As the talks recessed shortly before midnight, Mr. McIver said, ''We made some progress tonight.'' He said the talks were to resume this morning.

Although many commuters continued to get to and from Manhattan without exceptional difficulty, a subway breakdown yesterday morning delayed thousands.

A broken rail in the 53d Street tunnel under the East River halted service on the IND E and F trains for more than an hour, delaying commuters on the fourth day of the L.I.R.R. strike. Storm Due Today

New York City officials warned that an approaching winter storm could play havoc with the evening rush tonight. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch and predicted rain and snow beginning this afternoon, with temperatures in the 30's.

''It's going to make it difficult for commuters,'' said a Weather Service forecaster in Manhattan, Eugene Salerno.

The New York City Transportation Commissioner, Ross Sandler, said traffic flowed more smoothly yesterday than on Tuesday, when icy roads contributed to tie-ups. There were no major accidents yesterday, he said, but he cautioned commuters who had been riding buses from Long Island to Queens not to switch to private cars.

''If they do,'' he said, ''we could have massive gridlock.''

Yesterday problems on the subways began at 5:40 A.M., when workers discovered the broken rail in the 53d Street tunnel. It reduced the speeds of Manhattan-bound trains from 50 miles an hour to 5.

A Transit Authority spokesman, Termain Garden, said a second broken rail was discovered 2.1 miles to the east, at the IND 36th Street station in Queens. Signal Trouble in Subway

Crews made temporary repairs in the 53d Street tunnel by 7:20 A.M., Mr. Garden said, enabling motormen to increase their speed to 15 miles an hour.

Just when transit officials thought they could clear the packed trains that had backed up outside the tunnel, the signals that guide the trains began to malfunction, Mr. Garden said. Transit crews began directing trains by hand, while some trains were rerouted to the 60th Street tunnel or to Brooklyn.

The signals were repaired, and regular service resumed at 9:20 A.M., the Transit Authority said. Ridership on the IND E and F trains has increased by more than 30,000 passengers a day during the strike, Mr. Garden said.

The tentative settlement with the track workers means that more than half the railroad's labor force of 6,600 has now agreed to a contract.

In the negotiations that preceded the strike, five of the line's unions - representing conductors, clerks, ticket sellers, yard masters and supervisors -accepted a new contract that provides for a wage increase of 19.5 percent over four and a half years, retroactive to 1985.

The strike began Sunday when the engineers' group announced an ''irreconcilable impasse'' with the railroad, and the L.I.R.R. police joined the job action. Track Workers Get Pact

Through the day yesterday, meetings took place in the Hilton Hotel at Kennedy International Airport. The leaders of a coalition of shop craft unions, for example, caucused for several hours in Room 518. Other union leaders were said to be using second-floor conference rooms, and from time to time unionists ascended to the penthouse floor, where the railroad negotiators were encamped.

Railroad officials were reluctant to say who was meeting with whom. Nor would they provide a schedule of the day's bargaining sessions - possibly because they feared disrupting the talks or possibly because they also had trouble keeping up with the comings and goings.

Edward Yule Jr., general chairman of the United Transportation Union, said the track workers' pact would provide for overtime pay for weekend work, increased medical benefits and ''basically'' the same wage increase -about 19.5 percent over four and a half years -given to the five other unions.

The apparent collapse of the arbitration offer, which would have submitted the two-year-old contract dispute to binding arbitration, occurred despite a favorable response from the union representing L.I.R.R. police officers.

Leaders of the engineers' union, who indicated that they conditionally favored arbitration, discussed the idea with their members yesterday. The result was ''no deal,'' according to Hank Strempek, welfare administrator for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. However, a union leader said that he might try to revive the idea.

Later yesterday, a member of the coalition of five shop craft unions -William F. Mitchell, general chairman of the International Association of Machinists - said his group also objected to arbitration. ''We believe in negotiating our own agreement,'' he said.

Members of the coalition met for several hours, putting the finishing touches on a new proposal they submitted to management last night.

Mr. McIver said he was evaluating the proposal. L.I.R.R. STRIKE: SPECIAL PHONE NUMBERS